TGDRT #7 – Experience & Replayability

This week Jon and Dirk are joined by Firaxis designer and programmer Scott Lewis. He comes on the show to jump into a discussion about “experience” games, which target the player’s first experience, and replayable games, which are designed to hold up over the long haul. Along the way there’s plenty of talk about roguelikes and Spelunky in particular, one of Scott and Jon’s favorites. Unfortunately, the quality of Scott’s audio is a bit suspect, so we apologize for that.

Scott is a good friend and has a great deal of insight. One of my favorite games is actually a prototype of his that was, sadly, never released. Scott has introduced me to a variety of excellent games and podcasts over the years, and in many ways he helped inspire the project I’m currently working on. Many thanks to him for that!

And yes, before you say anything, the quality of his recording isn’t great – sorry about that. You may not have heard, but podcasting is right below rocket science on the “hard to do” scale. I know that sounds dubious, but… uh… you’ll just have to trust me.